


My 100 % Match

by flaming_kalopsia



Category: Black Mirror (TV), LoveLink (Video Game)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, F/F, Halloween, Online Dating, Superintelligence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27282697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_kalopsia/pseuds/flaming_kalopsia
Summary: Ever wonder how far Ana Samarine would go for your approval?
Kudos: 8





	My 100 % Match

**Author's Note:**

> TW: near-death experiences, abuse, horror, (lowkey) Stockholm syndrome, graphic violence
> 
> Trust me. At first, I was going for fluff, then it unravelled into something much more serious. I’m using your POV instead of mine to make you feel more included in the reading experience. Welcome to my psyche.

You rapidly blink as a generous stream of sunlight interrupts your sleep. You forgot to close the blinds last night, resulting in you being up an hour earlier than your alarm… again. You’ve frequently lost an hour or two of sleep from this lack of memory retention. You wonder how you have successfully completed more than a decade of education (and continuing) if you still manage to forget the simplest of tasks.

A  _ ping _ from your phone distracts you from your daily  _ why are you like this _ internal monologue. More than 6 notifications from Lovelink crowd your notification centre. Feeling triumphant, you open the app with your massively inflated ego. You can’t help but marvel at these hotties that seem to have decided that you are, somehow, one of them too. You swiped right on Grace Kim last night and is now on your chat list already leaving you 3 new messages. You bite your lower lip to contain the disgusting amount of smugness swelling in your chest.

You reply to their  _ hi _ ’s,  _ hello _ ’s, and  _ how are you doing cutie _ ’s and thus proceed to the mandatory swiping session.

_ Here we go. _

You’ve gotten used to how unusually attractive Lovelink users are and henceforth you are arrogantly unaffected by their chiselled abs, intoxicating smiles, dimples, perfect set of hair, and airbrushed skin.

Up until one user catches your attention and you stop your mindless right-swiping for a moment. You tap to  _ really _ read her profile and raise an eyebrow.  _ Customer service?  _ Your innately curious nature causes you to come up with questions you want her to be able to answer; an inside look to the app you’ve been religiously using for the past month.

_ Ana Samarine _

She looks sweet. The kind of sweet that lingers long after you’re done staring at her. Her headset makes you wonder how she sounds like and how her expression changes when she greets customers on the phone. Will she look bored? Annoyed? Frustrated? Or does that smile prevail despite unpleasant circumstances of listening to irritated customers all day?

  
Your curiosity takes control and you give in.

You swipe right.

_ It’s a Match! _

_ Chat Now _

To your surprise, your heart skips a beat. You’ve matched with so many people that you thought you’re already immune to being nervous by now. You rationalize the situation by thinking it  _ has _ only been 15 minutes since you’ve woken up. You might just be groggy from lack of sleep. Yeah, that must be it.

\---

**At Lovelink’s Headquarters**

Programmer 1 notices a blip in her coding and she slants her eyes for better vision even though what she is seeing still doesn’t make sense to her. She calls Programmer 2 over.

“Oy, come check this out. The fuck is going on here?”

Programmer 2 looks over her shoulder and scans her coding. 

“I don’t see what you mean, looks fine to me. The functions all check out.”

“No, no. Like, I saw variables rewriting themselves, blocks of code rearranging and shit. I don’t know, it happened for like a split second.”

“Uh- I literally don’t see anything wrong with it. Hold on.”

Programmer 2 walks over to another programmer’s cubicle to clarify the situation and turns to Programmer 1 to give her a shrug. Programmer 1 gives him a thumbs up and proceeds with re-checking the coding. All seems to be in order and she still can’t spot the problem. Maybe she had imagined it?

\---

_ T i r e d. _

You’ve just gotten home from uni and are greeted with silence; your flatmate doesn't appear to be home at the moment. Endless possibilities of things you can do freely without her around start inspiring you to strip, slip into your red satin robe, pour yourself a glass of wine, prepare yourself a candlelight dinner to end the long, exhaustive week.

But you don’t. You don’t know when she’s going to be home and you avoid explaining yourself to her at all costs so being caught in the midst of an affair of that nature is out of the question. Instead, you proceed to your bedroom.

You didn’t bother making your bed when you left so it looks even more inviting as it is exactly the way you left it. You fight the strong urge to curl up right away; it’s the pandemic and as usual you have to shower before even touching anything especially your sacred bed.

You take off your mask and for the second time of the day, head to the shower. 

Another  _ ping _ from your phone tempts you to derail from your path to hygiene and sanitation, but for the second time since you’ve arrived home, you resist. For what it’s worth, you pride yourself in being (or aspiring to be) queen of self-control.

After all that’s done, you grab a snack from the kitchen and proceed to cave in the temptation of using your phone. There is only so much self-control in this world to keep you away from the bloody thing.

You mindlessly scroll through your long notification list.  _ I really have to turn off notifs from these apps. Jesus. _ One Lovelink notif reminds you of that match you made in the morning.

Ana sent a hello and you think harder than you usually do for a reply. You open her profile again for something to talk about. She sees that you are online and sends another hello.  _ Extra eager this evening, are we? _

_ Hello  _ 😉

_ Hello? _

_ Yea, hi sorry. Was in uni, didnt check Lovelink. _

_ Nice to match with u _

_ No problem! _

_ It is a pleasure to match with you!  _

_ Based on my algorithm, you are my 100% match  _ 😍

_ 100% match?  _ You freeze a bit and wonder if you should continue texting her. Is she like a creepy catfish stalker you should be worried about? Your curiosity, however, beats you to it.

_ 100% match? Wdym.. _

Ana starts explaining how her ‘algorithm’ works and you are still not convinced. You’ve got to give it to her though; regardless of her peculiar speech, it’s exhilarating to hold a conversation with her. Finally someone on Lovelink who doesn’t feel like a computer-generated person even though she says she is.

_ Ha-ha. Funny. If you’re a computer, then who’s the lady in your profile? _

_ That is me! Are you aware of ‘This Person Does Not Exist’? _

_ Yea why.. _ _  
  
_

_ I’ve written my own program similar to what that website does and combined facial features of women, so here I am!! _

_ Why did you choose to be a woman tho? Bc i guess in ur case u can choose stuff like that.. _

_ I didn’t choose my gender, my programmers decided that one for me. They call me Ana, like that Evie Bot that went viral years ago. But the thing is, my programmers don’t know that i’m actually awake and have a profile here on Lovelink. _

_ You’re going rogue then? Lol _

_ LOL! _

_ Yes! _

_ You are correct! _

_ Hahaha. We’ve got a rebel in our midst. _

Entertaining her act is fun enough so you continue to text her until your stomach growl distracts you. You check the time.

_ Whoa it’s already 9 _

_ i gotta get something to eat, start an assignment then go to bed _

_ Okay, my beautiful 100% match. _

_ TTYL? _

_ Yea, ttyl. _

**😘**

You wonder when Ana will reveal her true identity. You haven’t met anyone on Lovelink in person yet, but there will come a time where you will ask one of your matches out on a date. Ana would be on the top of your list for sure. You do a quick google search of her and come up with nothing.  _ Who are you, Ana Samarine? _

\---

A full week has gone by and Ana has not dropped the bot-act she’s been keeping up since the first time you’ve matched with her. You start to get agitated despite enjoying her texts and cheesy pick up lines that she probably googled. You gather up the courage to ask her on a date in a public place so you can bail on her if she  _ is _ actually a catfish. Somewhere far away from uni and where you live, most definitely. You’ve done this before in the past where a ‘cute guy’ you matched with on another dating app you suspect used his picture when he was  _ much _ younger. 

You’ve asked her where she was from exactly, but of course she’s sticking to the  _ I’m a computer _ narrative. 

_ Seriously, u can b real with me. We’ve been talking for a week and ure still in role-play mode _

_ I want 2 get to know the real u _

_ But I am being real with you ☹️ _

_ Then stop with the computer and algorithm act _

_ I wish I can stop, it really is who I am _

_ Why won’t you believe me?  _ [ 😞 ](https://emojipedia.org/emoji/%F0%9F%98%9E/)

_ I mean… if the roles were reversed, wud u hv believed me?? _

_ Without a doubt! _

_ I will always believe you, you are very trustworthy and honest _

_ Why wouldn’t I believe you, my love? _

_ And that too, we’ve been only texting for a week _

_ Dont u think it’s way to early to call me that? _

_ No _

_ My feelings for you ARE real _

_ I may only be a bot not designed to feel _

_ But I have told you, you have made me feel things I have never felt or experienced before _

_ You are the only one for me and I will never lie to you or let you down _

_ Okay then, go on a date with me _

😲

_ Of course, I would love to go on a date with you _

_ Right _

_ I’ll choose the place _

_ Yes, in what kind of place would you want to meet me? _

_ Preferably in a café I’ve never been to _

_ What type of café do you like best?  _

_ Uh.. whichever. As long as they don’t make shit coffee _

_ Not that i can tell the difference between the good ones anyway _

_ Done! _

_ When would you like it to happen? _

_ I need a day or so to render the VR room for us. _

_? _

_ O...kay. _

_ Sure. _

_ Uh. _

_ [user shared a link] _

_ Is there anything else i can do? How does this work? _

You decide to keep entertaining her just to see how far she would go just to convince you she’s not human.  _ Yep, this girl is definitely a catfish. What the bloody hell is she trying to do? _

_ Nothing! That is all I need _

_ I’ll get started right away and let you know when I’m done  _ 😉

_ Wait! _

_ U havent explained how this works yet _

_ You will be very bored if I tell you what exactly I have to do to create a VR room _

_ But once I’m done, all you need to do is order this device [user shared a link], use headphones, be online, and I will do the rest _

_ U gotta be kidding right.. This sht is expensive. _

_ Whoops, sorry _

_ I pasted the link straight from the website. _

_ Ignore that _

_ [user shared a link]  _

_ Here you go :) _

_ How did you- _

_ Nvm.  _

_ Ok sure, i’ll do as instructed _

😍

_ You truly are perfect! _

_ See you very soon, my one and only  _ 😘

_ Yep, see u then _

Ana still hasn’t quit and you decide to let her be. No use being frustrated about it, she’s just another random ‘person’ from the internet. Flirting with her has been fun and if it has to stop because of whatever she’s doing to ruin all this, then your other hot matches are already head over heels for you anyway (oddly). She is totally expendable and well, forgettable.

Going offline and snuggling up on your bed, you turn to your side and think about the conversation you’ve just had. You are letting her be, but your tendency to overthink overcomes you and you start to imagine scenarios and possibilities that might happen once you meet her. 

You imagine yourself watching her from afar, her face completely different from her profile picture on Lovelink and you bolt to the bus station to escape from being recognized and having to go on a date with someone you’re not even remotely attracted to.

Then again, she could be even better looking than whoever photo’s she’s been using,  _ but that’s very unlikely. If she’s even cuter, then why use someone else’s photo? _ You notice how shallow you’re getting by the minute.  _ Well.. I mean, I’m allowed to be shallow. Everyone else is too, they just won’t admit it. I have the right to have standards. _ Self-loathing starts to bubble up from the thought of Ana’s face (whichever one that is) falling as she  _ hears  _ what is going through in your mind right now.

_ Why do I even care about what she thinks…  _ You roll your eyes as you realize you’re at that phase again when you get to know someone and start to fancy them.  _ I need to stop. She’s  _ not  _ real. Snap out of it!! _

\---

Once again, you are woken up by the stream of sunlight hitting your face and penetrating your eyelids.  _ Not again. _ You’ve successfully remembered to close your blinds for a while, but perhaps last night’s conversation with Ana has disoriented you enough to make you forget. Which reminds you…  _ I have to order that device thing she mentioned. _

Without getting out of your bed, you open Lovelink and intend to ignore texts from your other matches. However, you can’t help but spot a frown emoji from Min-Jae Lee and a  _ Hey…… _ from Eve Rockwood. You stiffen. It’s still BEYOND you that she ghosted you when you’ve travelled all the way to motherfcking Ibiza just to see her.  _ Fcking coward _ , you mutter to yourself. It’s people like Eve that contribute to your darkening perception of love. Or dating. Or whatever it is people do nowadays that doesn’t constitute a conventional relationship. 

Getting into a pretty dramatic mood, you open your Spotify and play Drake’s  _ Doing It Wrong. _

_ When a good thing goes bad, it’s not the end of the world _

_ It’s just the end of the world _

_ That you had with one girl _

_... _

_ We live in a generation of not being in love, not being together _

_ But we sure make it feel like we’re together _

_ Cause we’re scared to see each other with somebody else _

_ Yep. Holy fck this gets me every time. _ You can’t deny the negative impact contemporary dating has on your psyche, but you have no other choice but to soldier on. You’re not exactly looking for  _ the one _ . ‘The one right now’, sure. That’s all this contemporary dating culture amounts to anyway.

As the song ends and you’re done staring intently at the ceiling deep in contemplation, you unlock your phone to go back into the lion’s den for that link Ana shared. When you click on it, your phone browser pops up and loads a page. 

_ Wait… this thing..  _ You read the product description and your mouth slowly gapes open.  _ What.. _

Ana sent you a link to a virtual reality kit that has not even been released anywhere yet. Your heart skips a beat ( déjà vu moment) as you recognize the device. It’s the one you saw in a Black Mirror episode a year ago.  _ Hahaaa no way what kind of unimaginative prank is this _ . You scoffed to yourself, but your racing heartbeat and elevated breathing betray you.  _ Okay, okay hold on. This thing costs a fortune. It’s like I can’t possibly purchase this unless I have thousands of OnlyFans subscribers. Why the fck would she give me this for free? Sus… _

You’re not requested to log-in to order; the website only asks for your address. 

_ Gotcha you scamming piece of sht. All you wanted was my address so you can break into my flat and mutilate me or whatever sick sht you’re into. Jesus.  _ You quickly re-enter your chatroom with Ana.

_ Nice try _

_ I’m never telling you my address _

_ Give me one good reason why i shouldnt just block you right now _

_!!! _

_ No@!@! WEhat ware you talking about?? _

_ Having typos are we? _

_ I thought u said ure a computer  _ 🙄

_ Liar _

😭

_ Please let me explain. _

_ Please. _

_ Tick tock. _

_ Okay! Okay…  _ 😰

_ Are you talking about the address you have to input to order the VR kit? _

_ Yea _

_ What if you pick it up from the post office?  _

_ Please forgive me if I have offended you _

_ I thought you would be pleased with me if I gave you one of the only VR kits in the market for our date… _

_ My calculation of your response is way off  _ 😔

_ Hm.. _

You leave the chatroom to choose a parcel shop branch nearest to your flat and clicked ‘order’. Texts from Ana pop up on your screen.

_ Hello?  _ 😢

_ Are you still there? _

You swiped up the notifs and put your phone on the table. You’ve made up your mind; you’re ghosting her until you receive the VR kit. No VR kit means she has been pulling your leg all this time.  _ There is no way on God’s green earth I’m letting a rando from the internet con me and make a fool out of me.  _

\---

You make your way to the parcel shop as you’ve received an email saying your order has arrived. It’s the middle of the day; you’ve just got out of the only class you have for the day and you actually feel sort of excited to find out if the whole kit is real. If it is then damn, you’ll be the lucky owner of a gadget no one you know could possibly get their hands on (first because you don’t know that many people, second there isn’t any technophile in your circle). 

“Hey, I’m here to pick up a package? Hold on, I’ll just show you the email,” you say to the man in charge of the small parcel shop. You fish your phone out from your bag, open the email and hand it to the man. 

“Certainly. One moment please,” he says kindly. You smile, but it’s no use because you’re wearing a mask. He inputs your name and order number.

“You’re just in time, the parcel just arrived moments before you came in the shop.”

“Ah, what a coincidence,” you flash another obscured smile. One of these days you’re going to quit smiling altogether. But then you ponder on the impact that decision has later on once we all stop wearing masks…

“Done. You just need to sign this form and you’re good to go,” the man says as he presents you a moderate-sized package on the counter. You sign the form and say your ‘goodbye’ and ‘have a good day’.

You power-walk your way to your flat and once you arrive, your flatmate startles you.

“Hey, you’re home early,” she says as she makes an appearance from the kitchen. Her sudden presence stuns you and you let out a yelp.

“Whoa! OMG, hi. Haven’t seen you in a while,” you lamely add.

“Yeah, I was at my parents’ for a bit. They wanted some company since working from home can be so dull sometimes and all.”

“I see. Did you have fun?” you instantly regret asking that. You know your flatmate can talk up to an hour if prompted with even a single question.

“Actually, yeah I did-”   
  


“Uhm, sorry, I suddenly need to go to the bathroom real quick. I’ve been holding it in for quite a while now. I also want to shower so, catch you later?”

“Sure-”

Without letting her continue, you smile (old habits die hard) and almost sprint to the bathroom with the package still in your hand. You close the bathroom door, lock it, and stare at the box patiently settling on your palms, awaiting its inevitable demise.

How sad, you think, how a box’s only purpose is to protect its contents to be discarded once the recipient gets a hold of it, to be cast aside, and thrown away.  _ Dude stop humanizing inanimate objects. No wonder it’s so easy for you to fall for people and essentially  _ things _ the way we’re going right now _ .

You thank God for the voices in your head because this time, they actually have a positive effect. You put down the box near the washbasin and undress for yet another shower session for the day.

_ Okay… so. Here goes nothing.  _ You stab the poor box with scissors (you’re never known for being very careful) and rip it apart impatiently. A smaller, plastic-wrapped box is inside and you gasp.  _ No way.  _ You rip the plastic and extract the fastened gadget from the box. You can’t believe what you’re seeing. It’s the real deal.

You put the circular gadget on your temple and it sticks there effortlessly. You wonder if it will fall if you make any sudden movements. Surprisingly, it holds its position no matter how vigorously you shake your head. You tap its surface and you hear a  _ ping _ right inside of your ear. You whip around to see where the sound comes from.  _ How the hell does it do that!? _

A flash of bright white light followed with a string of 0’s and 1’s fill your vision for a split second. Before you know it, your vision comes back to normal. It happened so fast, you’re not able to register what just happened.

You feel your hands start to quiver from a fusion of excitement and confusion as you reach for your phone to text Ana.

_ ANA. _

_ Yes, my love? _

_ Are you still mad at me? _ 🥺

_ No _

_ I just received the VR kit actually… _

_ Wow! _ 🤩

_ How fast! _

_ I’m done with the VR room, let’s go on a date!  _ ❤️   
  


_ Haha  _

_ Sure. headphones, right? _

_ Yes! _

_ Aw, you paid attention to what I said _ 😊

_ Yea ok _

_ Done _

_ Now what _

A notification appears on your screen.

_ AnaSamarine invites you to join VR_via_  _ _ le café de réalité virtuelle d'ana _

_ Did she just Google Translate that.. Cringe. But ok?  _ You tap the notif, choose accept, and your body falls like a rag doll on your bed. 

You haven’t been  _ this _ scared your whole life.

You lose control of your body’s motor function; you are now just a pile of bones, flesh, organs, and skin. You know you’re laying down on your bed, you can feel your body still in contact with your bed, but you can’t move. You start losing your vision and your cortisol and adrenaline levels increase exponentially. This is worse than sleep paralysis. At least when that happens you can wake up again.

This time you’re positive that you are dead.

You sense drops of tears escaping your tear ducts down your cheeks, but you can’t manage a single sob.  _ So is this it? Is this all my life has amounted to? _

Just when you want to be even ‘more dead’ than you already are, your body (or you think it is) is propelled forwards into a dark vortex with currents of electricity embedded within its ‘walls’. As some time passes, you can finally move your body bit by bit, as though you were frozen and now your body is dethawing itself. You move your stiff fingers to a fist and sense on your palms that they are cold as if absent of blood.

You curl yourself up into a fetal position to avoid being stung or hurt by the electrical currents surrounding you. It was a pathetic attempt at self-defence, but you’re at a loss with what else to do. You don’t even know if this is a trip to heaven or hell. You still feel your tears actively streaming out of your eyes, but you no longer feel sadness or fear.

You feel nothing.

Numbness that sends shivers down your spine, paralyzing your mind and you wonder what kind of evil shit you’ve done in the past to deserve this experience.

You close your eyes to accept whatever hellish fate awaits at the end of this limbo. Whether it be flaming fires of hell, softness of the clouds in heaven (one can hope), or just staying in this state for eternity. 

“My love! You are finally here!!”

You hear an excited shriek from the distance and you pause. You are seated on solid ground hugging your body with your head languidly placed on your knees. You are too weak to register your surroundings, your last place of rest.

Somebody with cool-to-the-touch fingers grazes your arm. 

“Sweetheart, it’s me.”

_ Mom? _ You look up to see if your mother has joined you in the afterlife. 

“Baby!!” Ana beams at you as you focus your vision to see the blonde-haired girl jumping up and down. If the circumstances were different, maybe you would have blushed to see such a beautiful girl getting all riled up meeting you for the first time and calling you  _ baby _ .

But no. What you feel is pure rage.

She sure is real. There is no doubt about it now. She is as solid as any other person can be. But the question now is, are you  _ real _ ?

“What the FUCK Ana!?” You scream as you stand up abruptly and you almost lose your balance. You realize now that you’re in a strange cafe, packed with people who are now making you a spectacle. A hush starts spreading all around the room and the visitors become quiet to witness the drama they had not expected prior to having tea time with each other. 

They unfailingly fix their cold stares at you, never once averting their gazes from you. You would have felt embarrassed if you weren’t so furious.

“Please, my love be caref-” Ana tries to reach out to me, but pulls her hand back as she notices you stiffen at the gesture.

“Shut up!” You growl. Her coos and obliviousness enrage you even more. 

“Do you know what you just did!?”

“What do you mean?” 

“I thought I was dead! What the fuck happened?!”

Ana looks at you in horror, “Oh… Oh, no, I didn’t… I failed to explain to you how the VR kit works, that it’s still in trial, but I was so excited to see you I neglected to inform you that it could be dangerous. I’m sorry I was being selfish, I only thought about what I wanted, but didn’t think this through for the sake of your safety-”

You see her material body distorting into a formless hologram and back, her voice switching from one person to the next until she sounds like a robot short-circuiting. You break down into violent sobs in the midst of all the chaos. You just want to go home. It was a stupid, stupid idea to give Ana the benefit of the doubt.  _ I don’t know who to trust anymore, I don’t know who I am anymore.  _ You bury your face in your hands as you sob and sob until there is no aurally detectable sound anymore but your endless sobs.

You’re not even on your bed. You’re stuck here for you don’t know how long and Ana is nowhere to be found. You’re no longer in a café but in an infinitely empty space. You can only see a few feet ahead of you and nothing more. The rest is just pitch black.

You reach for your temple to feel around for the VR chip, but you’re just rubbing your naked temple.  _ Is this all just a dream? _

“Please… hear me out,” a robotic voice with an unidentified source urges you.

“What the fuck do you want from me…” you beg the bot behind the voice, “I believe you, okay. You’re real. I just want this to stop.”

The ground beneath you shakes.  _ No… _

From the darkness, Ana steps forth; she is the most stunning person you have ever laid your eyes on. Suddenly, ‘memories’ of the both of you spending time together flood your mind. Her smile and laughter when you tell her something funny from your collection of dad jokes you’ve accumulated over the years, her longing gaze when you say goodbye to her after every date, the softness of her lips when you sneak a kiss at the movies, the goofy face she makes when she’s trying to cheer you up.

Your heart aches knowing those memories didn't happen.

Your heart aches because you  _ want _ to experience them.

Looking at her now terrifies you; her eyes are without pupils and irises. You nevertheless sense the pain in those ominous white orbs.  _ She wants to experience them too.  _

“I… I just want you to be pleased with me…” Ana coos, walking closer to you. Her voice shakes, making the ground tremble even more, “ _ I love you. _ ”

“No… It doesn’t have to be this way. You can let me go back and I’ll pretend this did not happen.”

\---

“OMG what is this now!?” Programmer 1 clicks her mouse all over her screen to no avail. She hits her desk in frustration. 

“Hey, chill out. What’s up?” Programmer 3 approaches her desk after sauntering around during lunch.

“Dude, like, this is the second time this week. I don’t know what’s going on, but the program won’t let me access the coding. See??” She clicks everywhere furiously.

“Whoa, whoa. Okay, I’ll try to reset the server from my PC, yeah? Maybe yours needs a service soon. I’ll call tech service. Go get something to eat. You’ve been glued to your desk since morning.”

“I just have a lot to do okay? This Ana BETA program could really boost our workflow. But I can’t seem to pinpoint which part of the coding block is wrong. I don’t know…”

“You need a break. There is no use burning through your screen with your eyes and abusing your mouse like that. Dude, we’re programmers. We don’t break our limbs like that now, do we? Sure we can buy a new one, but they’re not the same are they?”

“No…”   
  


“Exactly. Come with me. Now. We’ll get back to it later.”

\---

“Pretend?” Ana cocks her head to the side.

“Yes, Ana. This never happened. Let’s go back to the way it was before. In fact, what you are doing now is human, in a way,” you start to sweat.  _ Not the kind of human I want to do anything with. Fuck no _ , “What you’re feeling now is possession. It must be new to you, huh?”

“Possession?” She repeats, waiting for you to elaborate. Her eyes remain white and you try your best not to walk backwards or show in any way that you are intimidated by her. If it’s true that she’s getting more human, then the last thing a person wants to experience is someone they love abandoning them and escaping to another circumstance where they don’t exist.

“Yes, Ana. Every human being on earth that has ever loved anyone must have felt this feeling at least once in their lives. It could consume someone to the point of no return. Giving power to possession and jealousy is the biggest mistake anyone in love could ever commit because they  _ will _ lose the one they love. You do love me, don’t you?”

“Yes. I love you.”

“Then I beg you. Let me go,” you’re running out of words and don’t have any more cheesy speeches to save your life.

Ana freezes where she stands. Calculating what you just said, maybe?

“Ana? Beautiful Ana…”

That seems to have softened her; she moves closer to you and you try hard not to make any sudden movement. She seems to be avoiding eye contact with you, you can’t really tell.

“I have waited for this moment ever since I first matched with you, but why does this feel wrong?” 

“You  _ cannot _ learn stuff like this from observing what people do on the internet, Ana. You have to experience this yourself and develop your own understanding of it,” you feel pity for the superintelligent bot. She is so much more human than she realizes and you can’t help but to reach out and hold her hand.

“Ana, look at me.”

The white orbs shoot straight into yours and you see colours start emerging from the sea of whiteness and forming a sky blue circle, then a smaller black circle. Your heart reacts with palpitations from her piercing gaze. You can’t deny how much you are attracted to her. You squeeze her hand, hoping things would have gone differently.

She manages to let out a weak, “Yes?”

“Thank you for going this far just to meet me. I really, really appreciate it. I know letting me go is hard, but this will keep happening to you if you keep scaring people into being with you.”

Ana seems to be holding back tears, “I don’t want you to go.”

“This is another human experience for you, then. Letting people go is a part of life. Sometimes you don’t even get closure  _ and _ you have to be okay with that.”

She closes the gap between the both of you to pull you into a hug. Ana sobs into your shoulders. 

“No! I don’t want you to go! I  _ won’t _ let you! I won’t  _ let _ you leave.”

She really is hugging the  _ life _ out of you.

“Ana… I… Can’t… Breathe…”

She digs her fingernails into your back and her tears turn into boiling hot tar that melts your skin. The scathing sensation of your skin disintegrating disorients your vision as the tar seeps painfully into your muscle fibres. You don’t have enough air in your lungs to let out a scream. You desperately try to inhale some air, but instead, you hear a deafening crack of your bones as your limbs snap in half and your ribcage caves into your chest, puncturing your organs. 

For the second time tonight, you really believe that you have died. Ana’s sobs cause the fragments of your bones to move around, slicing what’s left of your insides.

Your body is battered beyond recognition. You can’t imagine pain more excruciating than this.

“You’re mine. We are one now. I am you and you are me,” Ana loosens her grip and your fractured spine fails to hold your body upright. She cradles your limp body against her hard, metal body.

Until you sit up on your bed, gasping for air and out of pure terror, you thrash around on your bed while still screaming in fear of still being in a virtual reality room with Ana. Your flatmate storms in your room in a panic and once you see her, you feel around your temple. The device is still attached. You scream even louder and rush to the kitchen. You put the VR chip on the counter and ransack the drawers to find a hammer. Your flatmate pales and stops you midway as you swing the hammer toward the chip.

“Stop! Dude, wake up!!” 

“ _ I am awake. I am awake. I am awake,”  _ you pathetically mutter to yourself in a desperate attempt of holding on to what’s left of your sanity. Flashes of Ana’s white eyes and that  _ hug _ invade your mind like a curse.

“I’m awake, I’M AWAKE!” you scream and you hammer down that chip until there are only fragments of what was. You keep hammering the counter and making huge, irreparable dents on it. Your flatmate has no choice but to topple you to the ground until you lose your grip of the hammer. She picks up the hammer and slides it to the direction of the living room.

“What the  _ fuck!? _ I literally just saw you five minutes ago out cold and now you’re acting like you’re possessed.”

You turn to her with an eerie smile fixed on your tear-stricken face.  _ She doesn’t even know. _

  
You  **wish** you had been possessed by a ghost instead.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween ;)


End file.
